Professor discovers gossipy spiritualists

Saturday

Feb 25, 2012 at 12:01 AMFeb 25, 2012 at 1:00 AM

Janese Silvey

A Columbia College assistant professor expected to hear all about concepts of heaven and other spiritual lessons when she spent three weeks this past summer researching the residents of Lily Dale, N.Y.

Instead, Christina Ingoglia found that people there, all spiritualists by mandate, preferred to go "off the record" and instead gossip and complain about their neighbors.

"A lot of people were happy and wanted to be there, but it rubbed up against small-town gossip and rumors and politics," she said.

The Lily Dale Assembly — a gated town in upstate New York — bills itself the world's largest spiritualist community. Before moving there, residents must have belonged to a spiritualist church for at least a year.

The town, incorporated in 1879, is known for welcoming thousands of visitors during a tourism season that runs from late June through early September. Mediums and healers are set up throughout the community to give readings to those who pay $10 to enter the town during the season.

Lily Dale has been the subject of plenty of feature stories in national media. Ingoglia had intended to focus on spiritual beliefs during her trip but decided to take a different approach after meeting the people.

"Off the Record in Lily Dale" will capture, without revealing identities or secrets, what's really on the minds of the mediums and healers who live there.

Most of the residents there are older and, perhaps, felt as though they were outcasts in previous communities.

At the same time, the town's image means a lot to residents, Ingoglia said: They go out of their way to show their patriotism.

"Imagine combining that with being from a small town of 160 people, it makes for this kind paranoia soup," she said.

Ingoglia's writings focus on studying ghost towns and other oddball communities. One essay about the collapse of a uranium mining town in Wyoming was the subject of an essay published by the University of Denver.

Ingoglia's trip was funded through an internal Columbia College grant. She is expected to read an excerpt of her essay, still in progress, at Lincoln College next month and expects the final draft to be completed in April.